Auburn baseball earned its first top four national seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003.

The Tigers regional will consist of Central Connecticut State, Stetson and NC State. Auburn will take on four-seed Central Connecticut State in its first game of the regional Friday.

“I think it’s huge for our program. That’s three of the last four years. We’re starting to build something really special down here,” Junior outfielder Ike Irish said.

“I think the teams that are coming in, Central Connecticut is probably going to be a really gritty team from the North. They’re probably going to play really hard. NC State is going to be really sound. They made it to Omaha last year. Stetson, they have a long history of being good in this sport. I think we have a tall task ahead of us, but we’re playing at home.”

The last regional the Tigers hosted was two years ago where they were upset by the university of Pennsylvania and Southern Miss.

Irish spoke on the lessons he learned in that 2023 series Monday afternoon during the Tigers selection show.

“I think the freshman year regional we let Penn hang around too long. Watching the regional before that when they played Southeastern Louisiana, they didn’t leave any doubt and didn’t leave a team like that any confidence,” Irish said. “We just have to get off to a hot start. We have to pitch well, and we have to pitch well. I think if we get off to a hot start, we’ll be fine.”

Auburn finished the regular season 38-17 and 17-13 in Southeastern Conference play. This was a nine-win turnaround in conference after missing the postseason last season.

“The SEC schedule is the toughest in the country, honestly. So, we’ve been around the block, obviously, and now all we have to do is go play who we are, and I think we’ll be fine,” Auburn pitcher Sam Dutton said.

The LSU transfer was a part of a national championship winning team before his time on the plains. Being a part of the 2025 campaign with Auburn, Dutton has high hopes of winning it all again.

“Yeah, of course, just take it one game at a time. That’s the biggest thing that we can do as a team,” Dutton added. “And I think that team is prepared for this because all year long we’ve been taking one game at a time with the SEC schedule. So, I think it’s no different than that.”

First pitch for NC State and Stetson is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday. The Tigers game with Central Connecticut State fill start at 6 p.m. and both games will be streaming on ESPN+.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports forAL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3or email him at [email protected].